Five effective ways to improve the quality of your practice part one

Playing round after round, without intervening practice sessions, does little to improve your game. You may have a few real life experiences that prove you should have taken a penalty shot and dropped out of trouble, instead of hitting it deeper into the woods, but that’s learning the hard way. Here are five keys to quickly and dramatically improving your performance in your game, your business and your personal life.

1. Record, shoot video or take notes

Keep a record of your actions and the results they produce for you. By recording your performance, on videotape if you are golfing, or by using audiotape or notes if you are at work, you can start to look for helpful or harmful patterns.

How many putts a round do you average?

Do you hit all your drives in the right rough or are most of your bad shots pulled?

What percentage of prospects do you close?

This type of self-evaluation will indicate clearly to you the areas most urgently in need of improvement? As you collect this valuable information, continue to take notes, writing down both the problem and solution. Chart your progress and monitor your results frequently, even daily.

In the heat of battle, it is amazing how even the most proficient among us tends to forget the simplest of fundamentals, like keeping our heads still, taking the clubhead away slowly or remembering to ask for a sale. Brief notes in a diary, on scraps of paper or even on table napkins have provided a written reminder of a key fundamental and resulted in victory in many a tournament. For some champions the secret is contained in a single word or phrase taped inside their locker door.

When Britain’s Tony Jacklin arrived at his locker on the final day of the 1970 US Open Championship, he found his good friend Tom Weiskopf had taped a message to the door. The message was short and sweet. There were only two words. “Tempo, Jacko.”

Now who would have thought the reigning British Open Champion, a man going into the final round with one of the biggest leads in US Open history, would need such basic advice. As it happened, Jacklin gave much of the credit for his victory to those two little words. The difficult Hazeltine National course made some of the big name players of the day pay a severe toll. Dave Hill, who finished second, said, “All this course lacks is 80 acres of corn and some cows.” Well, in spite of Hill’s lack of affection for the venue, Jacklin maintained that smooth tempo and became the first Briton to win the US Open since Ted Ray in 1920, and by seven shots, the second largest margin in history. Weiskopf’s little reminder helped him achieve his victory.

As you know, we may not always need to be told, but we do need to be reminded from time to time.

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